...govern if it retains the confidence of the House of Commons. * It the executive loses the vote of confidence, it has no option but to resign and hence provoking a general elections. * Given that there are two Houses of Parliament, the system is called Bicameral. Composition, Role and Powers of the House of Lords: * It compromises of four types of Lords. * The vast majority is Life Peers, where they have been appointed to the House of Lords by the Prime Minister on his own recommendations and that of other party leaders. * While a smaller number of People’ Peers have been appointed by the House of Lords Appointments Commission. * There are 92 Hereditary Peers. * There is Lords Spiritual, the 26 Bishops of the Church of England. * However they are not elected and therefore does not enjoy democratic legitimacy the powers of the Lords are inferior to those of House of Commons. * This means all they can do to proposed legislation that they disapprove of its delay it for one year. * But they cannot do this to the budget. * According to the Salisbury Convention, they will not oppose proposals that were in the manifesto that the governing party was elected upon. * However they play an important role in parliament: The Lords have a wealth of experience the amendments that they suggest to bills can be taken very seriously by the government. Especially because these amendments are generally made without an obvious party political bias. Lords...
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...Parliament House Location : Delhi Also Known As : Sansad Bhavan Area : 6 Acres Houses : Chambers of Rajya Sabha & Lok Sabha And A Library Hall Parliament House : A marvellous piece of architecture where the bicameral legislature of India meets for its sessions. Lok sabha, the lower house and Rajya Sabha the upper house. Close to Rashtrapathi Bhavan, is a domed almost circular structure almost a kilometer in circumferance, and was designed by the famed architect Lutyens. It is the seat of the Indian Parliament and during the sessions of Parliament there is a flurry of activity in and around the structure. Parliament House Estate Parliament House Estate comprises the Parliament House, Reception Office building and Parliament House Annexe, 36 Gurdwara Rakabganj Road, 23 Mahadev Road and the extensive lawns around it where ponds with fountains have been provided. Special floral decoration is done at important points in the building during sessions of Parliament as well as on other important occasions. By the very nature of things, Parliament House Estate as a whole and the Chambers of the two Houses in particular are subject to strict security precaution all round the year. Parliament House of Delhi, generally known as the Sansad Bhawan is located at the end point of theSansad Marg in New Delhi. Parliament House of Delhi is a circular construction designed by Herbert Baker and was opened in 1927. The massive structure of the Parliament House in Delhi has 247 pillars with wide corridor...
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...ELECTIONS TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT (JUNE 2014) The UK is allocated a total of 73 seats in the European Parliament[1] which means that we elect 73 of the members of the European Parliament’s (MEPs). Since the electoral reforms of 1999, British MEPs are elected by the electoral system of Proportional Representation[2]. As you may already know, there are different variants of PR and the one used for the European elections is called the Regional Closed Party List System or simply Party List. The United Kingdom is split into 12 multi-member regions (9 English regions + Scotland, Wales and NI[3]). The English regions are London, East Midlands, West Midlands, Eastern, North East, North West, South West, South East and Yorkshire + Humber[4]). Each region sends a different number of representatives (MEPs) – London, for example, will elect nine MEPs whereas Northern Ireland sends only 3 candidates. In each region, the parties prepare a ranked list of candidates. The number of candidates that each party puts forward will normally be the same number of seats to be filled in that region (e.g. each party will have a list of 8 candidates in London because the London region sends 8 MEP to the European Parliament). Since this is a closed system, the voters have no influence over which individuals are elected from the party list. The order of the list is determined by the party leadership. Under this system, voters cast one vote for the party (rather than a candidate) of their choice...
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...Professional Training Year at THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Report submitted by Paul Preda Voicu URN: 6183487 In part fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of BSc (Honours) in International Hospitality and Tourism Management School of Hospitality and Tourism Management University of Surrey 2014 Table of Contents List of tables and figures 4 Acknowledgements 5 List of Abbreviations 6 Section A. Organisation evaluation 8 The Executive Summary 8 The Placement Overview 9 1. The Evaluation of the EP’s activities 10 1.1 The EP format 11 1.2 The History of the EP 11 1.3 Geographical Locations and Facilities 12 2. The People 16 2.1 Visions and Strategies 16 2.2 Institutional structure and management 16 2.2.1 External structure 16 2.2.2 Internal Structure 17 2.3 Management of the EP 21 2.3.1 EP’s Political management 21 2.3.2 EP’s Organisational management 22 2.3.3 EP’s Communication Management 23 2.4 Staffing, recruiting and training 24 2.4.1 Staffing 24 2.4.2 Recruiting 27 2.4.3 Training 27 3. The Numbers 27 3.1 Strict rules for efficient and transparent budget implementation 32 3.1.1 Separation of functions 32 3.1.2 Use of standard documents 32 3.2 Controls of the budgetary procedure 32 3.2.1 Internal controls 33 3.2.2 Internal audits 33 3.2.3 External controls 33 4. Evaluation and conclusion 34 4.1 SWOT analysis 34 4.2 Conclusions 35 Section B. Personal and professional development 36 ...
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...How much influence does the EU parliament have in the EU appointments and policy making? The EU parliament has influence over EU appointments both in their democratic supervision, and also in their supervising the budget. Furthermore, they also have a great deal of control over policy making, with the ability to pass EU law. The EU parliament has a great deal of power in its ability to pass EU Law. In some areas such as protecting the environment, the EU parliament works with the council to decide on the content of the laws, then it is the parliament’s duty to pass them. As they can influence both what the laws contain and which ones are passed, this makes them highly influential in law making. Furthermore, since the passing of the Lisbon treaty, this power has been increased giving parliament more influence in a greater number of areas including agriculture and immigration. Alternatively, the EU parliament can be seen to be influential in the EU appointing. For example, when a new commission is appointed, none of the 28 ministers can take any power until approved by parliament. This makes them highly influential as they can work with the council, control the commission and have final say on what is actually passed by Law. Furthermore, the Parliament can also pass a “Motion of censure” which forces all the EU commission to resign. This makes them highly influential over the appointments in the EU commission. Finally, the EU parliament has control over what is discussed...
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...« THE RISE of PARLIAMENT in XIII ». Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Magnum Cartum Liberatum. 3. Simon de Monfort and his “Parliamentum”. 4. King Edward’s Parliament. 5. Parliament nowadays. a). The Functions of Parliament. b). The Meeting of Parliament. c). The House of Lords. d). The House of Commons. e). Public Access to Parliamentary Proceedings. 6. Conclusion. INTRODUCTION I am always interested in the history of Great Britain and especially in the developing of the British Parliament. It plays the leading role in the political life of Great Britain. It passes laws, provides the means of carrying work of the government, scrutinizes government policy and administration, including proposals for expenditure; debates the major issues of the day. In my wok I try to look at the history of this undoubtedly important body of authority. The events that took place in England in the XIII century turned out to be the main influence on the formation and the rise of Parliament that exists to the very moment. THE GREAT CHARTER - MAGNA CARTA Richard I’s absence in the Holy Land and the expense of crusade the weakened power of the Crown in England. When his brother John became a king, he lacked the money to defend the English lands in France successfully. The meanness and cruelty of his character added to his unpopularity stimulated a heavy...
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...How effective is parliament? Parliament in the UK is mainly made up of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The ‘executive’ refers to the Government. The effectiveness of parliament is judged by how effectively the government is held to account by the Commons and Lords. One of parliament’s main functions is holding the government to account. One of the effective ways parliaments hold the government to account is it forces government ministers to justify their policies and explain why they were developed as well as explain the future effects of these policies. Debates are a perfect opportunity to hold the government to account they provide an open floor for Mps to speak and question members of the government, however this is usually unreliable seeing as PM’s get pre-prepared questions. The opposition party and everyone else within parliament have the duty to criticise and scrutinise government bills. This works to keep the government in check as it forces them to reconsider their decisions, make changes if necessary and defend their ideas from the oppositions criticism. This then works to ensure that policy is well thought out, and discussed before it is passed through the House of Lords. It is Parliaments ability to question that allows them to keep the power of government in check; this suggests that parliament is effective on government to a large extent. An example of a governments defeat would be the Hunting with dogs’ act 2001. However, Parliament is limited in its...
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...'Parliament carries out none of its functions adequately.' Discuss (40 marks) In the UK, Parliament consists of the Monarchy, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. This has existed for centuries and has stood the test of time, in that it still exists. However a number of concerns have been raised about some of the functions and whether they function adequately enough (to a satisfactory or acceptable extent). Parliament currently carries out several functions and is the prime legislative body in the UK. It has many functions such as being representative, legitimising legislation, calling government to account as well as scrutinising and amending legislation. It is made up of representatives who are voted in order to represent the needs of their constituencies In the House of Commons. Government has to be drawn from Parliament as well as being accountable to it, accountability means that Parliament must justify its policies to Parliament as well as referring to representatives who are accountable for their electorates. Parliaments main function is not to obstruct and control the government as it will only do this if the government is seen to be abusing its power by not acting in the public’s interest. Predominately and most obviously parliaments “main function” is legislation and passing bills and in all fairness that’s what Parliament does, far more bills are efficiently passed through Parliament and become laws compared to the US who struggle to pass anything...
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...powerful is the UK Parliament? The Westminster Parliament is the UK’s highest political institution, making decisions on issues important to citizens throughout Britain. The Houses of Commons and Lords are responsible for passing legislation, scrutinising the government and debating issues. Retaining a high level of sovereignty despite devolution, seating dominating majority governments and possessing unprecedented constitutional flexibility, the UK Parliament wields a great deal of power. Political scientist Arend (Lijphart, 1999) first branded democracies as ‘consensual’ or ‘majoritarian.’ The UK parliament is said to be majoritarian, with a strong governing party and Cabinet, a lesser presence of small parties, minimal decentralisation,...
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...To what extent is parliament still sovereign? For many years it has been argued that parliamentary sovereignty has, and still is, being eroded. As said by AV Dicey, the word ‘sovereignty’ is used to describe the idea of “the power of law making unrestricted by any legal limit”. Parliamentary sovereignty is a principle of the UK constitution, stating that Parliament is the supreme legal authority in the UK, able to create and remove any law. This power over-rules courts and all other jurisdiction. It also cannot be entrenched; this is where all laws passed by the party in government can be changed by future parliaments. In recent years sovereignty of parliament has been a In 1972 the UK joined the treaty of accession, this was a statute law passed by parliament. It stated that the UK was now a part of the EU and therefore must abide by the laws and regulations that would be imposed; over 2,900 regulations and 410 directives were added, 43 volumes of the EU legislation. Due to having joined over 30 years after the initial EU was created, the UK has been made to accept laws that had been made without its input. Whereas now, having joined the EU, we are involved in in their creation - this is a key argument for why we should remain a member. Joining the EU has been agued as being a pinnacle point at which the UK lost its sovereignty, as this was the first time in the history of parliament where absolute power was no longer held. Research done by the TPA (Taxpayers Alliance)...
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...Parliament is also known as the legislature, it has several roles including legitimizing legislation, passing laws, calling government to account well as scrutinizing and amending legislation. It is made up of representatives who are voted in order to represent the needs of their constituencies in the House of Commons. The UK parliament stands in the Centre of the British political system, as it is the source of all political power as well as being legally sovereign. Government has to be drawn from parliament as well as being accountable to it; accountability means that parliament must justify its policies to parliament as well as referring to representatives who are accountable for their electorates. Parliament main function is not to obstruct and control the government, as it will only do this if the government is seen to be abusing its power by not acting in the public’s interest. The main role of parliament is to support the government and to legitimize its proposals. Parliament is also bicameral, separated in to the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Representation is a crucial function of parliament; in the UK we use a system called Representative democracy where most decisions are made by elected representatives rather than the people themselves. There are arguments that representation in parliament is strong. Peers who have more expertise in particular areas of policies and can help to improve legislation, therefore represent many sections of society and associations...
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...How and why should parliament be made more effective? Parliament is the sovereign body in the United Kingdom and so it is vital, for the wellbeing of democracy, that parliament not only exists but is also effective. Parliament plays the role of the Legislative and, as a result, is required to be as effective as possible to assure that laws are well thought out, benefit the whole of society and most of all maintain democracy. However, many people feel that certain aspects within Parliament limit its effectiveness and they feel these features need to be reformed in order for Parliament to carry out its function correctly. Firstly, the most obvious way to make Parliament more effective would be to reform the electoral system. Currently, Westminster elections use the system of First-past-the-post where the candidate with the most votes in a constituency wins the seats. However, this system is highly disproportionate in both terms of the word as it exaggerates winning votes for example, the Conservatives received 36.1% of the vote and won 47.1% of the seats in the 2010 general election, whereas it penalises small parties such as the Liberal Democrats who won 23% of the vote but gained only 8.8% of the seats. Particularly as FPTP produces landslide majorities, it makes Parliament less effective as the party that wins the general election forms the government and therefore has a large majority in most cases. If MPs belonging to the party vote along party lines all the time, in...
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...Parliament carries out several responsibilities. One of parliaments functions is legislation, which is making laws, as it is the major legislative body in the UK. They represent the people, as well as they are legitimate , a scrutiny and can be held or hold others accountable. They also carry out other functions. There is a significant difference between the House of Lords and House of Commons. Which is that the House of Lords is not voted in unlike the House of Commons who are more legitimate as they are voted in. Parliament is able to carry out its legislative function by passing acts of Parliament. The plans in which government are taking over the year in the queens speech, this is the legislative timetable. There is also an opportunity for the members bring forward their own bill , this is called the private members bill. Any legislation is thoroughly debated and reviewed and most go through various processes in the two houses before it is passed as a law. Though there is little to no free debates do discussion, due to various reasons such as the whips, who hold the MPs to account. A private member bill is unlikely to pass as only a few are even able to be discussed due to parliaments schedule. The House of Lords have very little to power as they have no say in any economic legislations, and can only block legislations not stop them, in which they have the powers to do this three times. It carries out functions that show it is legitimate such as taking the country...
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...How effectively does Parliament fulfil its functions? Parliament has several functions. It debates major issues of current interest, it makes legislation, it scrutinises the executive whilst simultaneously sustaining the government, and it represents the people and redresses their grievances. In many aspects, Parliament is usually effective in fulfilling its functions, but there are occasions where it is not as diligent in doing so. Parliament’s scrutiny function is mainly carried out through four methods; Prime Minister’s Questions, Select Committees, back bench MPs and the House of Lords. Prime Minister’s Questions are a weekly opportunity for the opposition and backbenchers to scrutinise the Prime Minister and by extension the government, and to highlight government failings or simply ask a question. This is a good way of scrutinising the Prime Minister as it puts him/her under pressure to justify their actions, and answer potentially awkward questions regardless of whether they have been pre-submitted. The main weakness of this form of scrutiny is that the questions are often submitted to the Prime Minister some time before Prime Minister’s Questions, allowing him/her to come up with an answer beforehand that might let him/her to actually evade proper scrutiny within the House of Commons. Select Committees in both Houses of Parliament investigate the work of government and produce reports on policy proposals. They can call witnesses in the course of their proceedings...
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...The Coalition has introduced a number of reforms designed to make parliament more efficient and more accountable, such as E Petitions, power of recall, the equalisation of constituencies, a reduction in the powers of the Prime Minister and Fixed Term parliaments. Select Committees have also been further reformed, while there are major plans for to make the House of Lords primarily elective. The EQUALISATIION IN THE SIZE OF CONSTITUENCIES to between 72,000 – 80, removing anomalies whereby some constituencies can have 30% more voters than others, might seem relatively un-contentious. However, critics argue that the Electoral Register has not been sufficiently updated for such a radical overhaul of voting, while the new constituencies will often have to cross county borders and urban / countryside boundaries thus complicating the interests that MPs represent. The reduction of MPs from 650 to 600 is also controversial as it will statistically reduce representation in the Commons, as well as proportionally increasing the influence of government in a reduced legislature. There has though been a great deal of support, too, for FIXED TERM PARLIAMENTS since this takes away from the Prime Minister the right to call a General Election at his or her convenience. However, other reforms have been a great deal more controversial; the new ruling that a VOTE OF CONFIDENCE in the government can only be provoked by a vote of 55% in the House of Commons has been condemned...
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